Scotland Dances

In a NUTSHELL:

This is a film and a performance and happiness generator all in one.  Glasgow's 'Dancing Queen', Philadelphia native Kate E. Deeming has been dancing outside for the past 16 months, over 350 days - she engages with CEOs and the Homeless alike, Workmen and Grannies, Children and Carers bringing joy and connection through her unique style of joyful expression.  Regardless of weather conditions, Kate E. dances joyfully and freely for the benefit of the public. Bringing smiles to thousands of passers by on foot, cycle and car who often will wave, honk and even…dance!

Over 12 days Filmmaker Benoit Moulanier wishes to chart this experience.  Kate E. will put herself in residence for full days of dance at her regular spot, the Glasgow Broomielaw, former site of shipyards, now newly re-developed, but without real purpose.  The film and the dancing create a portrait, which shows to the world, in this time of great turmoil (& sometimes bad weather!), something hopeful. 

In April 2010, Scottish Parliament commended Kate E. for her contribution to dance and peacemaking citing that her dance 'represented the spirit of dance in Scotland' for Unesco World Dance Day.

PROPOSAL:

WHAT we’re looking for:
The money we are seeking to raise will allow Kate E. Deeming and filmmaker Benoit Moulanier to take up residence for minimum wage for 12 days on the Glasgow Broomielaw .  In that time Kate E. will dance for 5 hours per day (all weather), charted by Benoit.  The footage will then be masterfully edited into a piece of film which can be shared across the globe: a beautiful piece of film which represents something quite wonderful happening, despite the world’s woes, showing the great possibility for all good things in life.

The budget is £2346.40 (we are looking to raise £1000 offline) which covers minimum wage for Kate E. and Benoit over the 12 days, equipment costs, travel, and a new pair of dancing shoes for Kate E. It will cost approximately £200 per day to be there, (with equipment costs etc.), if we exceed our budget, Kate E. will continue to do full days dancing.

READ FURTHER TO LEARN MORE (much more....)
 

WHERE IS ALL STARTED....(from Kate E.)

1 March 2010: I had just returned from the former war zone of Sri Lanka where I had facilitated dance workshops with children. It was a grey day, and I felt it, like a cloak of lead upon my soul. Memories of the girls at Anbu Illam orphanage, and of the young people in Batticaloa were fresh inside of me. Children with an uncertain future and yet such beauty, and generosity. Thoughts as to what could happen to them removed my lung capacity. And I was missing them as echoes of their laughter and images of dancing filtered through my brain. For two years I had returned there, and I felt that this time it was an ending. I was bereft.

I decided to go for a run, a culturally acceptable physical practice for outdoor spaces. And having operated in a largely voluntary capacity, a free one, which was all I could afford.

I arrived at the River Clyde that day, a space that once had been the bastion of Glasgow life in shipbuilding, newly developed without a trace of it’s past, with wide open walkways and benches, and office blocks flanking the sides. It was empty save the random commuter – head down, cloaked in black, hustling into workplace covertly, invisible.

And inspiration came, ‘Dance!’, it beckoned.

I looked about me, big open spaces, empty. And I replied, ‘ok’.

So began my outdoor dancing.

I felt so enlightened and liberated by the experience, and the place, I returned the next day, and the next… in my heart I was dancing for those children, and for all the kids I had ever worked with. The disenfranchised, the forgotten, the lost…. Sending celebrations for all they are and could be…

But what transpired ended up being much greater than that.

The downturned faces, the hunched shoulders, the hustle of ‘non-activity’ that previously had occupied that ‘passing through’ space transformed as people began to seek the dance.

Smiles, waves, eye-contact, honks… and that section of earth was made sweeter. Youtube videos began to spring up, and then the BBC did a story and STV and many other media channels…

For me having witnessed the aftermath of war in Sri Lanka, not to mention my previous experience of engaging with poverty and violence in the US, UK, Europe, Canada and India, the shift proved vital. In the shadow of world events – wars, greed, destruction, my dances seemed to generate HOPE.

Interestingly and unsurprisingly the words HOPE and HOP share the same etymological root. We can imagine the physical act of “hopping” also serves as a metaphor to take us from our suffering and pain into something joyful and beautiful.

And, unsurprisingly, I felt compelled to continue, to find new and better ways to expand this practice. And through doing so, I have received hundreds of stories back of positive change, of celebrations of life, of personal transformation.

www.deemingdreaming.com

Filmmaker Benoit Moulanier speaks about the project:

I heard about someone dancing for so many days in all weathers on the River Clyde in a public space and I thought ‘that is interesting’, I filmed the space before, I know what the light is like. I thought I have to film this, because as a filmmaker you’re always looking for things to document, not only because someone was dancing, it was much more than that… but because of over 300 days, in all weather.

In the arts people often do things in defined spaces, not only physically but emotionally and socially. This dancing challenges that and is both vulnerable and strong at the same time. Vulnerable because she is exposing herself but strong for the same reason. It’s total passion.

If you don’t know arts, you might pass it, but even if you do know arts, and you want to see some dance for example, you have to pay for it. It’s a contrary thing – art takes you to a place, whereas this place takes you to the art.

In this case I found a certain generosity and accessibility because of the freedom of each one-off show as the dance is improvised day by day.

Filming for me is like a dance; if I put the camera in static it puts the performance in a rectangle. What is interesting because of the dance and the space, I have to be intuitively in sync with what is happening and move accordingly.
 

Benoit Moulanier is an illusive Filmmaker from the Bordeaux region of France who frequently will create projects and then slip into anonymity.  His last project was for 'Loop - International Women's Day 100 Anniversary' at the Glasgow Tramway.  He has been based in Scotland for 4 years.

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